GTA 6 developers are “researching” AI to make games “smarter”
GTA 6 could be one of the most expensive games of all time in terms of its budget, and this type of investment may only be sustainable for a small group of games, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in an interview.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Zelnick explained that gigantic investments only make sense for “massive blockbusters,” and “that’s extremely difficult.” Of course, GTA 6 is expected to be one of those games, but even tougher times lie ahead for the entire industry as production costs continue to rise.
“We cannot cope with exponential growth – probably not even linear growth – in production costs,” he said. “That’s why everyone is putting pressure on everyone else, including ourselves. But overall, we want to achieve greater success and are prepared to take reasonable risks to do so.”
GTA 6, BioShock and Borderlands need to cut costs
GTA is Take-Two’s largest franchise, but the company also owns other well-known brands like BioShock and Borderlands. Zelnick said that there is “in fact” a limit to the growth potential of these brands if costs don’t decrease. “That means we have to optimize our approach, otherwise certain titles can’t be realized,” he said.
Zelnick went on to say that Take-Two is “exploring” whether AI “could help us get there,” but he said that “technology” is a better term when talking about what could help the company achieve efficiency gains and potentially reduce development costs.
“We certainly won’t be offering consumers less. We won’t make the games easier, shorter, or worse,” he said. “I’m confident that we can achieve greater efficiency with the help of technology. We’ll see.”
Previously, Zelnick had stated that GTA 6 was an “expensive” game in development, although Take-Two had not provided any specific budget details. Zelnick said his goal was to provide developers with “unlimited” financial and creative resources. Regarding AI-driven cost savings, Zelnick commented that Take-Two had not observed this so far and perhaps never would.
Zelnick and many others in the industry argue that video game production costs are unsustainable and something must change, or the video game industry’s crisis will only worsen. To cover the undoubtedly enormous production costs of GTA 6, many wonder if Rockstar will charge more than $70 for the game. That remains to be seen, but a Bank of America stock analyst recently suggested that Rockstar should charge $80 to encourage other publishers to raise their game prices and thus make the market more sustainable.
GTA 6 will be released on November 19th for PS5 and Xbox Series X and Series S. It will not be released for PC at launch, as the PC is not the primary market for the game.
